Interview with the Magestore partner: 2019 Retail Trend and Magestore’s New POS solution

Our regular readers know that Magestore has been one of our trusted partners since 2017.

About a year ago, they have transformed into Native Omnichannel Solution provider for Magento retailers. It’s time for Aheadworks readers to have a quick update on all the changes.

In 2019, Magestore will focus more on the Point of Sale feature in their solution and already launched a superb Point of Sale tool using innovative technology to help retailers sell effectively both online and offline stores.

So today we have a chance to ask Alex Nguyen, Chief Product Officer at Magestore, to share about the key product of Magestore and also the focus in product development following the Magento roadmap in 2019.

Hi Alex. We’re so glad to have you here and appreciate the opportunity to talk about the new focus of your company in detail.

Alex: Hi Aheadworks friends, I’m so honored to be a guest today and hope that I’ll be able to bring a bit more clear vision of our partnership in 2019 with a new product.

While Aheadworks is well-known for selling extensions for Magento online stores. Magestore is now focusing more on the POS solution which explores the offline aspect of retail. So it would be great if Magento users who run kind of omnichannel business can take advantages of our Magento-native POS product or the complete omnichannel solution.

Sounds promising! We’ve heard that Magestore POS product is the first POS using Progressive Web App technology in the market. Could you share more with Aheadworks’ readers? What are the reasons for using this technology? How it benefits users compared to native apps?

Alex: Progressive Web Application experiences combine the best of the web and the best of apps. PWAs are more efficient than the native apps. They work on-demand and are always accessible, without taking up a smart phone’s valuable memory or data.

By choosing to use a PWA over a native version of the POS tool, shopping experience will become much easier, faster and more secure.

Our POS inherits all those features above of PWA technology. So, it’s fast at the checkout ― the most important thing for any POS, ― and still brings an app-like experience, real-time online-offline synchronization.

The solution keeps all the data in Magento only, allows selling without the Internet, and so much more.

Did your team deal with any difficulty in developing the product following PWA technology?

Alex: The greatest difficulty in developing PWA POS for Magento 2 is dealing with offline data.

PWA is a technology that focuses on front-end applications for customers/end users. Here processing a large amount of offline data is usually not the priority.

Selling offline, however, is a must-have feature in a POS system. Magento retailers don’t just sell from a register in one store. They need a POS that they can run multiple stores and display all the range of products to customers. It’s something they take with them to pop-up stores and tradeshows.

As a result, our POS needs to process a lot of offline data such as product, customer, orders, refund info, etc. And we’ve put a lot of hard work to get offline data saved in the system, so it will load much faster the second time the staff logs into the system.

Another concern is hardware compatibility. Hardware integration has been a known issue with PWAs, as they depend a lot on the capabilities of the browser.

It took some time, but in the latest version of our POS for Magento 2.3, we’ve been able to connect our POS with hardware devices, including the Airprint POS Receipt Printer on iPad.

Speaking of which, how is the POS for Magento 2.3 different from the one for previous Magento versions?

Alex: Let’s start with the difference in Magento 2.3 itself. The biggest change has to do with the way retailers handle their inventory.

In the previous version, there was one inventory system. With 2.3, Magento introduced a new feature called Multi-Source Inventory (MSI).

Now merchants can manage stock in multiple locations. They can link multiple warehouses to one or many websites without relying on third-party extensions.

Item quantity is now calculated based on the connected sources and existing orders, giving merchants a much more accurate picture of their stock.

The inventory system of Magento 2.3 is completely different from Magento 2.2 and previous versions. As a result, our POS system has to be designed differently as well.

While our POS for Magento 2.3 has sales features similar to the previous version, we considered it a separate product line. The first 2.3-compatible version has been released in January 2019.

Magestore POS, as well as the rest of our system, has been integrated to work seamlessly with Magento 2.3. We can support merchants using both single and multi-source modes.

Merchants can connect the POS location to the default source and stock, or create a separate stock and source if they have multiple warehouses. The salable quantity, shipment, or refund items will be updated into the connected stock and source, in real time.

Our system is completely compatible with Magento, so merchants can manage all retail operations from their Magento backend.

Besides the POS product, you’ve mentioned a complete online-to-offline solution for retailers. I think Aheadworks readers will be interested in this solution. Can you share more about it?

Alex: While PWA POS remains the core product we offer, we want to help merchants deal with a lot more than just selling in a physical store.

Fast checkout is essential to retail success, but it’s not enough on its own, isn’t it? Magento users are also looking for convenience, personalization, and more.

As of the moment, we’re offering three separate POS editions for merchants with different requirements.

We released the Standard version in early January this year. It’s a simple, easy-to-use POS for merchants who start out with one warehouse and store.

Just a couple of weeks ago, we released the POS Professional edition for Magento 2.3. This edition supports multiple warehouses and stores as well as the PWA POS.

In the storefront, merchants can offer gift cards and a loyalty program. In the backend offer, we also added in barcode and purchase order features.

We’re also working on an Enterprise edition for Magento 2.3. In this edition, we hope to add the in-store credit, inventory report, and advanced fulfillment options.

We want to make sure that each customer has a complete retail solution that’s also specific to their needs. As a result, we also offer a customization service for the profession and enterprise edition.

All the editions will have free first-year support and lifetime update. We want to make sure that our solution actually works while Magento merchants will have an easier time selling and managing.

Make sure to visit magestore.com to find the solution tailored for your business needs!

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Aheadworks is a dynamic market leading provider of Magento extensions, Magento templates and themes, and custom development services with a comprehensive portfolio of best-in-class solutions for eCommerce businesses.